Ed Westcott framed … again

There he is in his steely-eyed prime — shirt sleeves rolled, tie loosened, clutching the bulky Speed Graphic camera that was the primary tool of his trade.

The Associated Press

There he is in his steely-eyed prime — shirt sleeves rolled, tie loosened, clutching the bulky Speed Graphic camera that was the primary tool of his trade.

That oil portrait of Ed Westcott from his days as the only authorized photographer in a secret city was unveiled Tuesday at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Now 91, Westcott took thousands of black-and-white photographs of Oak Ridge — both as a city in its infancy with its 75,000 youthful residents involved in building the first atomic bomb during World War II, and for years afterward.

Westcott was 23 years old “when he preserved forever those priceless fleeting images of those kids who changed the world,” 90-year-old Oak Ridge historian Bill Wilcox said of Westcott’s wartime exploits.

Several of those photos are on display on the base of the main staircase in the American Museum of Science and Energy, where the portrait was unveiled.